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Friday, July 24, 2009

1st "Gorge" Trail Work Sessions Aug. 15/16 & Aug. 22/23

We met and walked the trail with several Forest Service folks on Thursday, July 23rd in the a.m. and we all decided it makes more sense for them to complete their portion of the trail rehab before we begin work on our section. They are closing the entry point to the illegal ORV trail that we are rehabbing. They are also attending the yearly meeting of the Lake association where most of the ORV traffic comes from on Aug. 1st to let them know that the trail is being closed for good (3rd try over the years) and serious enforcement will be taking place if they try to bypass the trail closure.

We will be working on the weekends of Aug. 15/16 and 22/23. The sand and wood chips are already on site; we have an all terrain skid steer (bobcat) rented for the work week in Sept.

Our big push on this project will still take place Sept. 12 - 19, rain or shine.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Boot Camp News

Interested in Mushing Boot Camp the first weekend in October? Get your registration in - we need all 9 teams registered ASAP. Go to: http://www.mushingbootcamp.com/ and fill out the forms and follow the instructions there to get signed up.

Below are a few more photos of the trike with one dog in harness in lead, the other two running by their necklines.


















Here's two views of the same section of driveway - what a difference 8 months makes!





Monday, July 6, 2009

Finally back on the blog!

Whew! Took me many hours to figure it out but I finally did - back in business.

Here's a few photos of my trike set up with 3 dogs attached. The leader is in a guard harness (1/2 harness) and the other two dogs are running attached to their necklines only. Just when you think there's nothing new to try in dogsledding, someone comes up with a novel idea.





Jason Barron at http://www.kanabearenterprises.com and a few others are using this technique to back off some of the power so the dogs can get out in warmer temps and get some exercise in the late spring, summer and earlier fall. I know it sounds weird but the dogs do figure out to back off a little and they love getting out and running.



I'm hoping this will help reset their thermostats, so to speak, so they can tolerate warmer temps in the winter and beyond into next summer too. I'm also looking forward to using this technique in the winter to reduce power in the team when the conditions are dicey (read: icy!)



We aren't going far, only 1 - 2 miles a run, depending on how they look. Even at that short distance, I stop and offer water most days. It also affords a training experience, stopping, standing, waiting for my "go" command on the trail with little holding power on my end (a ball bungie around the hand brake is all the parking brake I have.) I think they are learning some better "wait" manners with this too.

I am running 5 teams of 3 a couple of times a week each, including right up to this week. In the really hot weather, we laid off for a week or so.

I run them right up to the kiddie pool when we come back to the barn and they jump right in to cool off (well, most of them anyway - some just don't care to be wet.)